How Retailers Can Bring Home the Beacons

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Beacons will become standard when retailers use them to identify their businesses in the same fashion they publish their address or phone number. They will also become a standard when the industry starts treating them like a standard. That will solve the chicken-and-egg problem.

Go Daddy Launches Cloud Solutions for SMBs

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Go Daddy has launchedtwo new products: Cloud Servers and Cloud Applications, both of which are engineered to help a web professional quickly build, test and scale cloud solutions.

For Small Businesses, the Tide Is Turning

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With a high percentage of retail consumer spending occurring in the last six weeks of the year, the fourth quarter is a good time to take the temperature of business owners. Recent surveys from Thumbtack and Yelp indicate an overall positive outlook heading into 2016.

In Local Marketing, ‘Obsolete’ Is All Relative

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The pace of innovation is such that many new technologies are deemed “obsolete” before small business owners get the chance to fully understand them, let alone implement them in their business. Many feel left behind the curve as a result. But obsolete is not an absolute condition when it comes to marketing techniques. Where marketing tactics and technologies are underutilized, potential for competitive gains still exists.

Forget DIY, DIWM, and DIFM: ‘Do Nothing’ is the Best Approach to Capturing the SMB Market

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The future of SMB marketing solutions isn’t do-it-yourself, do-it-for-me, or even do-it-with-me. Rather, it lies in a new go-to-market model called “do nothing” that combines context, content, software, and automation into solutions that are low-cost, have next to no barriers to entry, and require little in the way of learning or doing from customers.

DEBATE: The Marketing of SMB Marketing Solutions

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Speculation over the best model for providing and marketing SMB solutions — do-it-yourself (DIY), do-it-for-me (DIFM), or the middle-ground option, do-it-with-me (DIFM) — has been swirling for years. Columns from two Street Fight contributors indicate that while technology is part of the current problem, it’s undoubtedly part of the solution as well.

SMBs and Self-Service: Are We There Yet?

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The question of whether or when SMBs are going to self-provision online marketing has been a topic of intense debate for at least a decade. Signs now point to the emergence of solutions simple enough to make self-service viable within three to five years. Ultimately, rather than a do-it-yourself vs. do-it-for-me dichotomy, we’re likely to see an increasingly stratified local market that looks a lot like a three-cabin airplane seating chart.

Street Fight Daily: Apple Pay Goes International and Has a New Competitor, Amazon’s Effect on SMBs

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A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Apple Pay Partners with AmEx to Expand Internationally (Fortune)… JPMorgan Chase Says It’s Building a Rival to Apple Pay (Channel NewsAsia)… Is Amazon Killing Small Businesses? (Forbes)…

INFOGRAPHIC: The Complex SMB Marketing Ecosystem 2.0

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As the head of digital strategy for a broadcaster operating local TV stations, Lorren Elkins has been challenged to clearly understand the digital marketing space from an SMB perspective. In response, he developed an interactive chart, now in its second iteration, to both enhance his own understanding and assist SMBs in identifying potential suppliers.

Street Fight Daily: Starbucks Launches Mobile Ordering, a Recap of Google’s Local Search Updates

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A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Never Wait in Line Again: Starbucks Rolls Out Mobile Ordering Nationwide (Mashable)… The New Google Local Search Display (Search Engine Land)… Postmates Unveils Revamped Platform, Announces 4 Million Deliveries (TechCrunch)…

ShopKeep’s Richelson: You Have to Specialize, Then Grow

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“There is no way a company can start with a holistic service. You have to specialize then grow. But I will say because of the cloud it’s very easy to bolt on other providers to create a holistic service,” said ShopKeep founder Jason Richelson about branching out beyond his company’s initial focus on SMB point-of-sale software.

Getting Real: What SMBs Can Realistically Expect from Social Media

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Small business owners don’t sign up with digital agencies for mediocre results. When SMBs pay for hyperlocal services like social media management, they expect to be wowed. For hyperlocal vendors working with SMB clients, failing to set clear expectations is a recipe for disaster.

Locable Zeroes in on Marketing Solutions for Digitally Challenged Merchants

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There are 28 million small businesses in America, and Locable considers all of them candidates for its expanded “Main Street for the 21st Century” marketing services. Now Locable is reaching out to those millions of small businesses through its IMPACT Marketing Suite. We caught up with Locable founder and CEO Brian Ostrovsky to talk about his new initiative.

Estimote’s Cheney: Beacons Will Solve Online-to-Offline Attribution

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There’s never been a good way to attribute the actions consumers take in the physical world to what they do online. Beacons are the answer to the attribution loop problem, said Estimote co-founder Steve Cheney.

Street Fight Daily: Stripe’s New Mobile Commerce Tool, Can Google Keep Up With Changes in Search?

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A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Stripe Introduces New Tools to Simplify Mobile Shopping (New York Times)… Google Gears Up for Search Shift to Mobile and Vertical (Ad Age)… Etsy Opens To Manufacturing (TechCrunch)…

How SMBs Can Boost Their Online Reviews Without Breaking the Bank

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Online reviews play an increasingly important role in helping local businesses stand out from the competition. But getting that strong rating on Yelp – or TripAdvisor, Google Plus, or Foursquare – requires a concerted effort on the part of the local business and its marketing partners. Here are some steps that can help earn a few more five-star votes.

Street Fight Daily: Facebook’s Sandberg on SMBs, Etsy Will Try Same-Day Delivery

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A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Sheryl Sandberg: Facebook Pages Are Mobile Presence for Small Businesses (Wall Street Journal)… Etsy Will Test Same-Day Delivery Option in New York City (Recode)… Google, Twitter, and Publishers Seek Faster Web (New York Times)…

Why Brands and SMBs Need Each Other for Success in Local

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Product brands commit more than $22 billion in online co-op advertising funds each year, but local businesses leave approximately $1 billion of these funds untouched. That’s a lot of money. The revenue brands stand to earn by introducing local businesses to the digital age is remarkable…

Like Other Local Services Marketplaces, Amazon Will Have to Balance Competing Interests

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Anyone in the local services industry could be forgiven for worrying about Amazon as an intimidating competitor. But for all of Amazon’s Goliath brand dominance in retail, it faces the same complex challenges that the rest of us face when it comes to the services industry…

Lessons Learned While Building a Hyperlocal Startup

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I recently asked our sales team what they thought about serving the local market. I drilled down on what it’s like to build a hyperlocal company in today’s ever-connected world and how to best handle the inherent challenges of this unique customer base…